He came to stay for a long while, but history suggests that it will be a short spell. Graham Potter is Chelsea’s new chief of staff, as the Stamford Bridge club hired the former Brighton coach just a day after parting ways with Thomas Tuchel.Potter has signed a five-year contract, he will make his debut in Saturday’s match against city rivals Fulham, which will begin his era in London. In all likelihood, it will last no longer than two years, because that is the fate of all the Blues managers during the past decade and a half.The only one who resisted such a short term is Jose Mourinho, although the Portuguese was also dismissed after only two and a half seasons. All the others – and there were far more famous than Potter – either did not meet expectations and were rushed to leave, or had to depart due to disagreements with the club establishment. At least Graham Potter has protected himself with a contract until the summer of 2027, so that at least he will do well financially when it’s time to go.”I am extremely excited to manage Chelsea, I look forward to the opportunity to work with an exciting group of footballers to develop a squad and a culture of play that fans can be proud of. A massive thank you to Brighton for giving me this opportunity, especially to Tony Bloom but also everyone at the club for their continuous support,” said Potter after arriving in the new environment.Chelsea Football Club is delighted to welcome Graham Potter as our new Head Coach! 🤝— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) September 8, 2022 And it is an extremely demanding environment. And an unpredictable one. Not even trophies guarantee continued work – in recent years Chelsea said goodbye to Roberto di Matteo, even though he won the Champions League cup (lasted eight months), Rafael Benitez (half a year), Jose Mourinho (two and a half, won a Premier League title), Guus Hiddink (six months), Antonio Conte (two years, won a Premier League title), Maurizio Sarri (a year, won the Europa League trophy), Frank Lampard (a year and a half) and Thomas Tuchel (a year and eight months, won the Champions League).Under such circumstances – Potter could really use a good lawyer. The constant changes at the Blues’ bench resulted in Chelsea paying 150 million euros for sacking coaches in these 20 years. Also, only three of the 12 managers did not profit from their departures from the club.Tuchel lasted 589 days on the Chelsea bench. In relation to the time spent, he can be considered one of the most successful coaches in the history of Chelsea. After all, he brought them the Champions League when only a few hoped for it…But Tuchel is also known to become, like Antonio Conte, an increasingly “difficult man” to work with as time goes on. And that doesn’t work well in Chelsea. Especially if there are no results. And especially when a new owner arrives eager for instant success and glamour.New boss Todd Boehly fired Tuchel exactly after 100 days at the club. The American entered the club in style and wanted to be recognized by the entire football planet this summer. He spent close to 300 million euros on reinforcements, but very quickly there were differences of opinion with Tuchel. The moment the German vetoed Cristiano Ronaldo’s arrival at the club, he got his first big minus with Boehly.##NAJAVA_MECA_6624361##The American doesn’t know much about football and footballers and he even unapologetically asked journalists which player was good and which one was not. But he knows very well who Cristiano Ronaldo is. According to his American reasons and rules of business, Ronaldo was a chance that had to be taken. Jorge Mendes offered him the star of Manchester United, but Tuchel objected, claiming that Ronaldo would completely destroy the concept of the team. In the end, Boehly had to bring in Tuchel’s favorite – Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, who in his eyes is not ‘attractive’ enough. But Chelsea needed a striker and the boss respected a coach whose credit was reduced to a minimum.Two days ago, Boehly arrived in Zagreb to enjoy the first match in the Champions League as the club owner, but left the capital of Croatia unpleasantly surprised as Dinamo embarrassed Chelsea. The businessman wondered how the hell such an expensive team lost that game? It was the final straw and the German coach was promptly fired.Chelsea will have to pay for Tuchel’s dismissal. The German will receive 13 million pounds for premature dismissal, and another 4 million pounds for his associates. Where Roman Abramovich left off, Todd Boehly took over and continued. No club has paid more compensation to sacked managers this century than Chelsea. Since the arrival of Abramovich to the club in 2003 and the dismissal of Claudio Ranieri, Chelsea’s coaching changes have cost 131 million pounds, which translates to about 150 million euros at today’s exchange rate. Although it is essentially more because the pound had bigger value before…🚨 BREAKING 🚨Graham Potter has arrived at Chelsea’s Cobham training ground! pic.twitter.com/rHdRQJtH7k— Football Daily (@footballdaily) September 8, 2022 Only three coaches did not charge for departures from Chelsea: Guus Hiddink and Rafa Benitez, who came as temporary solutions, and Maurizio Sarri, who decided to go to Juventus. The war between director Marina Granovskaya and Antonio Conte cost them the most. The Italian went all the way and when the court process ended after 10 months, the club from Stamford Bridge paid 20 million euros to him alone. But with the rest of the professional staff and heavy court costs, the total sum was about 30 million euros! This was officially announced by the club…Compensation Chelsea paid for sacked coaches (in pounds):Claudio Ranieri (June 2004) – 6 millionJose Mourinho (September 2007) – 23.1 million (with the coaching staff)Avram Grant (May 2008) – 5.2 millionLuiz Felipe Scolari (February 2009) – 12.6 millionCarlo Ancelotti (May 2011) – 6 millionAndre Villas-Boas (March 2012) – 12 millionRoberto di Matteo (November 2012) – 10.7 millionRafa Benitez (May 2013) – contract expiredJose Mourinho (December 2015) – 9.5 million (with the coaching staff)Guus Hiddink (May 2016) – contract expiredAntonio Conte (June 2018) – 26.6 million (with the coaching staff and trial costs)Maurizio Sarri (July 2019) – contract expiredFrank Lampard (January 2021) – 2 millionThomas Tuchel (September 2022) – 17.5 million (with the coaching staff)While the paperwork is being prepared to pay Tuchel, Chelsea have made it official that Graham Potter is the first team’s coach. And they will also have to pay for the new acquisition – Potter’s exit clause at the AMEX stadium is 15 million euros. Almost the entire coaching staff of the Seagulls comes with him. The Brighton strategist was supposed to hold a press conference today before the match with Bournemouth, but it was canceled. The reason is yesterday’s meeting between Todd Boehly and Graham Potter in London, where it was agreed that Brighton’s long-time strategist will take over the helm of the Blues.Boehly, with his knowledge of football, was certainly not the one who came up with the idea of choosing Potter. But he probably realized after 100 days at the club that he should have advisors and associates. Now it is widely announced that Chelsea will soon appoint a sporting director (Paul Mitchell and Martin Edwards are mentioned) after Boehly, on the advice of various agents, managers and even Tuchel, completed the summer transfer window and pretty much played Football Manager in real life.🔵 A look at Chelsea’s next six fixtures 👇 pic.twitter.com/73TlgBwDlv— Football Daily (@footballdaily) September 8, 2022 Graham Potter is not a typical managerial story from the Island. He was a lower league coach who started building his name as a coach in the small Swedish club Östersund, which he led from the sixth league to European competition and won a return ticket to England. He didn’t manage well in Swansea, but he worked wonders in Brighton in the previous three years. He received recognition from all sides, but few expected that Chelsea would knock on his door. It’s not Boehly’s style… And that’s why there are growing rumors that the mysterious new sports director has already started work and that he chose Potter.
